Sonic Shuffle | The App Release

Sonic Shuffle The App Release is not just an album, but an interactive application entirely conceived and written in MAX/Msp by Domenico Sciajno; a composing and remixing tool where each composition can be endlessly transformed by the listener’s actions and choices or through algorithmic automation or a combination of both.

A limited edition of 50 specially designed hard PVC box holding a USB memory support shaped like a playing card containing:
- 48 sound files: the sonic/musical creations specifically recorded by the aforementioned musicians that constitute the musical sources played and conducted by users at their own discretion.
- A user-customizable application (a MAX/Msp standalone for Mac and Windows) that allows the user to reform and manipulate the performances of the score, creating a different experience on each listen.

Unlike traditional, fixed formats (CD, DVD, digital download), this application offers the possibility of an endless numbers of versions, new and original at each performance. The listener may also listen without otherwise participating, hearing the work as originally manifested, allowing the application itself to determine the orchestration of the score.
For the more radical and experimental sonic adventurers, the application allows extreme customization up to and including the ability for the user to introduce sound files (or any kind of audio recording) of his or her own, in combination with the embedded ones or supplanting them!

How did this project use Max?

This release is based on a software application entirely written in MAX/Msp by Domenico Sciajno and compiled in two standalones, one for MAC and the other for WIN paltforms.
This particular release in the form of a software application with embedded audio files is derived from a original composition by Sciajno.
This composition, titled Sonic Shuffle, consists of a conducted graphic score based on a specially designed deck of cards for an ensemble of laptop computers or other portable electronic/digital equipment.
A description of the original composition and the full original score can be found on the sonicshuffle.net website.
The substantial difference between the original score and The App Release is that the sonic processes defined in the score are not interpreted live, but have been recorded by 48 different artists, who are well known in the non-conventional music and sound art fields. Those are now embedded in the software application.
Another difference is that all the functions physically controlled by the conductor of the original score are now left to the user, who can operate through the specific software application.
Everybody can be a user of such an application, no special musical and technical skills or education are necessary. Deep listening, sonic imagination and curiosity will be enough to drive any user through the experience.
The application handles the graphic score and controls the combinatory elements as well as the “orchestral” aspects of real-time, conducted composition. Unlike traditional, fixed formats (CD, DVD, digital download), this application offers the possibility of an endless number of versions, new and original at each performance.
For those who simply prefer to lay back, relax and listen, it is possible to run the application unattended, in automatic-algorithmic mode. In this way the listener may also listen without otherwise participating, hearing the work as originally manifested, allowing the application itself to determine the orchestration of the score.
For the more radical and experimental sonic adventurers, the application allows extreme customization up to and including the option for the user to introduce sound files (or any kind of audio recording) of his or her own, in combination with the embedded ones or supplanting them.